The present invention relates to a thin connector, in particular, to a substrate-to-substrate connector comprising a first connector portion having a flat plate shape and a second connector portion having a flat plate shape superimposed on and fitted with each other in a fitting plane.
As a connector of this type, for example, JP 2012-226977 A discloses a connector as illustrated in FIG. 25. The connector comprises a receptacle 2 mounted on a first substrate 1 and a plug 4 (not shown) mounted on a second substrate 3. In the receptacle 2, a plurality of receptacle contacts 5 having spring properties are formed to be arrayed as illustrated in FIG. 26, and in the plug 4, protruding plug contacts 6 are formed to be arrayed as illustrated in FIG. 27.
Each of the receptacle contacts 5 has a main arm portion 5a curved so as to form inside thereof an opening portion S, an auxiliary arm portion 5b provided so as to face the main arm portion 5a, and a projection portion 5c provided in the vicinity of the tip end of the main arm portion 5a and the tip end of the auxiliary arm portion 5b, as illustrated in FIG. 28. The opening portion S is to receive the plug contact 6.
As illustrated in FIG. 29, upon superimposing the plug 4 on the receptacle 2, the protruding plug contacts 6 of the plug 4 are inserted into the opening portions S of the corresponding receptacle contacts 5, and in this state, the plug 4 mounted on the second substrate 3 is slid in the direction of the arrow C with respect to the receptacle 2 mounted on the first substrate 1 as illustrated in FIG. 30, whereby each of the protruding plug contacts 6 of the plug 4 moves as having its side surface kept in contact with the main arm portion 5a over the whole length thereof and is elastically caught among the tip end of the main arm portion 5a, the tip end of the auxiliary arm portion 5b and the projection portion Sc. Thus, the receptacle 2 and the plug 4 are fitted with each other, and the receptacle contacts 5 and the plug contacts 6 are electrically connected in this manner.
When the receptacle 2 and the plug 4 are fitted with each other, the main arm portion 5a of each of the receptacle contacts 5 is pushed by each of the protruding plug contacts 6 of the plug 4 to elastically displace in the direction in which the receptacle contacts 5 are arranged, and, in order to improve reliability of connection between the receptacle contacts 5 and the plug contacts 6, the main arm portion 5a of each of the receptacle contacts 5 preferably works as a flexible spring and largely displaces.
On the other hand, in order to ensure the displacement amount of the main arm portion 5a of each of the receptacle contacts 5 while preventing the adjacent receptacle contacts 5 from being short-circuited, the receptacle contacts 5 have to be arranged at a large pitch, and it has been difficult to narrow the arrangement pitch.